Page 85 of Blood of Vengeance

“They found wax on my dad’s body.”

Dead. This motherfucker was about to be so much more dead than he already was.

I pressed my weight into his body, letting my claws sink into the flesh of his neck. Pinning him in place as I growled, “Did you kill Chiggy?”

The vamp squirmed at first then settled into an eerie sort of quiet stance, staring back at me with his dead eyes. No fear, no emotion. Just the dark depths of someone without a soul.

“He refused to give me what I needed.”

That was as much of a yes as I needed. “You’re fucking dead.”

But the vampire just grinned in a very strange, almost impossible way. As if his flesh wasn’t quite connected to his bones. Son of a… I had a feeling the wax was to help control his decomposition. This bastard had to be old as fuck to have rotted to this level.

“We want this region,” he said, dripping black liquid from the corner of his mouth. “Get your dogs out of it, or it’ll be more than Chiggy left to rot in the desert.” He sniffed, eyes darting to look over my shoulder as a sound similar to a laugh bubbled up out of him. “We know she’s your fated mate. I wonder if she’ll taste as good as her father. She’s human—I wouldn’t even have to shoot her first to immobilize her. Hell, I might like it more if she fights back.”

I had no thoughts left in my head, no strategies or battle plans. There was nothing but rage. My wolf pushed through my control, turning me into a monster as he twisted my body into more canine than man. As he took over my thoughts and my actions. We slashed the creature before us, growling and snapping as waxy flesh shredded beneath our fingers. The vampire’s screech of pain filled the bedroom but fell on deaf ears—I had no sympathy left for the fucker. No worry in his killing. He had murdered my club brother—my president—but the threat to my mate had sealed his fate in the most painful way. I didn’t go for the throat—didn’t behead the bastard to end things quickly. No, I stripped his flesh from his bones in increments. Wanting it to hurt. Wanting him to feel the fear of dying a slow death at my hands.

I tortured him for being a threat to my mate. And I felt no regret over that decision.

Only when the bed had been broken from my fit of rage and all the pretty details Locklyn had added to the space had been destroyed, when the vampire was nothing more than a skeleton and a puddle of black, gooey ribbons of flesh left on the very rug my beautiful mate had only recently purchased for me, did I stop. Heaving breaths didn’t quite calm me, but I knew I needed to regain my composure. To allow the human me to take full control. Locklyn had just watched me shred a sentient being into nothing—I needed control of myself before I turned around and faced her.

But it wasn’t going to be quick or easy to do that. “Cutter.”

“They’re okay.”

I took a deep breath, calming my wolf. Letting him settle inside me so I could face my mate in my human form. But fuck, he was worked up and ready to keep fighting. For her.

“I’m sorry, Locklyn,” I finally said, turning just enough to face her. My heart dropping when she refused to look at me. “I am so sorry for killing that vampire in front of you. I was an animal, and you didn’t need to see that side of me.”

She looked up for the most fleeting of moments, eyes darting along my body as if taking stock. I could only imagine what she saw. Her mate, bare chested and wearing low-slung gray sweat pants, covered in a gooey black substance while sporting some bloody slashes on his rib cage and likely still sprouting wolf hair in places. Not something she should have seen. Ever.

Finally, she shrugged a shoulder. “He killed my dad. He deserved it.”

Adam hissed a long, low whistle sort of sound, which reminded me of his presence. He looked over the scene of destruction with more glee than I had ever seen on someone’s face. Enjoying the visage as only a chaos demon could. The concern in his voice, though, didn’t match his expression.

“The other vamps will bring more chaos.”

Yeah, that much I knew. Which would put all of us at risk. Especially the humans in our midst.

“Flinch,” Cutter finally said, bringing my attention to him. It didn’t stay there long—my eyes zeroed in on my mate, who seemed emotionless but pale. And who definitely didn’t look my way. Though perhaps she was too busy holding her friend upright. “I think Zella needs to go to the hospital.”

“I don’t,” Zella said. I sniffed long and hard, the scent of her sickness difficult to ascertain over the burn of the demon and the rot of the vampire, but there. Heavy and dark and stronger than usual.

Zella’s sickness had somehow gotten worse in just a matter of hours.

Locklyn pursed her lips and frowned at her best friend, apparently not liking the refusal of help. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine?—”

“She’s not fine,” Cutter interjected, sniffing and frowning. “I can smell the sickness, Zee. It’s building.”

Zella sighed, keeping her eyes on Locklyn. “It’s no big deal. Tonight has just been…a lot.”

Locklyn grabbed her friend’s hand. “Do you have your pain meds?”

Zella shook her head, eyes on the floor. Appearing almost defeated.

“Then you do need to go to the hospital. Let’s get you out of this pain cycle before it becomes overwhelming.” Locklyn glanced up at me, just a quick and cursory overview as if taking inventory of my person, before refocusing on her friend. “For me. Go for me.”

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